Of LIZARDS & MEN
Contestants face their fears in new game show
By Maureen Koh
December 17, 2009
WHEN TV host Michelle Chia announced the mission the five men had to complete, Polo Boys actor Kiwi Lim’s immediate response was: ‘What’s there to be scared of? Just lizards.’
BOO! Michelle Chong ‘scaring’ Michelle Chia and Vivian Lai.
Perhaps. But we’re not talking about just coming face-to-face with one or two creepy crawlies. We’re talking possibly hundreds. Yup, tons of lizards and their eggs huddled together in various spots in an abandoned underground tunnel somewhere in the forest.
The mission? Each man had to lower himself down into the pitch-dark tunnel, where he had to locate and autograph his photograph that had been placed inside earlier.
And if coming face-to-face with tons of lizardss wasn’t enough, the men had to catch a creepy crawlie – or two – alive, put it in a zipper bag and emerge from the dark tunnel looking unfazed for the rolling cameras.
NEST: Lizards and their eggs in the tunnel.
TNP PICTURES: JONATHAN CHOO
It’s not a scene from Fear Factor, but a new Channel U game show U’re The Man, where 10 men from all walks of life, are auditioned and picked to compete in various challenges over 12 episodes to prove they are worthy of the title.
An elimination process will begin after the first six weeks of challenges, with themes that include endurance, courage, fashion sense, situational/test of wits and leadership potential.
So far, other than the lizard challenge, there’s also the flash mob Chinese dance challenge. The producers are coming up with more challenges.
The show premieres on 12 Jan.
The New Paper tagged along with the first team of five men last week for a sneak peek into the challenges they had to overcome.
Other than Kiwi, the contestants in this group are James Aw Yong, 23, an undergrad, Eric Gwee, 28, a model, Benjamin Loy, 25, who is currently ‘exploring business options’, and Leon Liang, 21, a salesman.
Queasy
The trail started at the foot of a forested hill along Marsiling Crescent.
Even as co-hosts Michelle Chong and Vivian Lai were feeling queasy over what was in store, Kiwi was all cool.
The 21-year-old student from Temasek Polytechnic declared happily that his elder brother kept geckos as pets.
Kiwi said: ‘It’s just lizards. No problem. I’m familiar with them because my brother has so many at home.’
How many, we asked.
‘About 100′, he bragged.
So when it came to his turn to be a lizard-buster, Kiwi went into the dark tunnel with executive producer Glen Lim and the production crew.
Before long, we started hearing short yelps – which prompted the rest of us standing outside to wonder if the actor was hamming it up for the camera.
Amid laughter, Michelle Chia – who co-stars with him on Polo Boys – said: ‘Oh, that’s just so like Kiwi. You can count on him to provide the comic relief.’
But the screams became more frequent. And louder.
And when Kiwi finally emerged from the tunnel, he had nothing but an empty zipper bag in his hand.
He told Michelle Chong: ‘It was horrifying. I could not even bring myself to touch them.’
Indeed, he was so frightened that he stood rooted to the spot and could not even walk.
Michelle asked: ‘But we thought your brother kept some of these (geckos) at home?’
Kiwi said: ‘Yah, but the ones he has are really cute!’
He added: ‘I freaked out when I saw all those eggs.’
His remark got the whole group doubling up with laughter, especially when he had described the eggs in Mandarin as ‘ji dan’ – which meant chicken eggs.
But the laughter did not soothe his nerves. With his hands still shaking, Kiwi told The New Paper: ‘I was only exaggerating, pulling your leg when I said my brother has about 100 geckos.’
He added: ‘I felt like I was in their territory, like I’m just the unwanted visitor. Look, they could be sleeping… and the eggs… eeks!’
Unlike him, his rivals passed with flying colours, like undergrad James Aw, who focused on just getting the task done.
He said: ‘I just treated it like an adventure and forced myself not to think about it.
‘I told myself it was just a mission I had to accomplish.’
James also had a strategy – to catch the lizard by its middle since the reptile has the ability to drop its tail.
He added: ‘Oh, but the head is still quite agile and the second lizard actually nipped my hand.’
Eric felt that the uneasiness was more a mindset than actual fear.
He added: ‘I was more appalled that such a tunnel existed.’
Benjamin confessed that he is scared of house lizards. ‘The trick is to mentally block out the thought,’ he said.
‘But it was kind of creepy inside the tunnel – almost like it was haunted. I think I was more scared of suddenly seeing an apparition.’
Unpleasant encounters
Yet, it was not the ghostly feeling that left Michelle Chia almost in tears. The host had earlier shared some of her unpleasant encounters with house lizards.
She said: ‘You don’t know how it’s like to have a lizard land on your forehead!
‘Or worse, once I opened a cupboard and this lizard landed on my cheek.’
Showing how it rolled off from her cheek to her arm, she added: ‘It was terrible trying to peel the thing off my body!’
Before filming started, Michelle told Glen: ‘Please warn them (the men) not to throw (the lizards) at me – even if it’s just in jest.
‘I will really ‘fan lian’ (Mandarin for get angry).’
But it took little to make her jump. When James walked near her and dangled the bag containing two lizards, Michelle dashed off, screaming her lungs off.
She started crying and had to be comforted by an equally frightened Vivian.
Which was why she said she could ‘completely empathise’ with Kiwi’s fear.
Kiwi, happy that he had a sympathiser, said: ‘Yeah, you’ve not seen the eggs, so you don’t know how scary it is.’
Michelle quipped: ‘Erh, I’ve seen chicken eggs and really, I’m not scared of them.’
Prove U’re The Man – by doing ribbon dance
U’RE The Man hunts for the man who can live up to the title.
That does not mean he is merely good-looking – unlike the new show’s Chinese title ‘hua yang xin nan’, which literally means a handsome and refined man.
Executive producer Glen Lim said: ‘In this case, ‘hua yang’ refers to the various games and obstacles we’ve crafted to challenge the men.’
One challenge required the contestants to be dressed in suits, with a long, red silk ribbon as an accessory. Their mission was to complete a Chinese silk ribbon dance in the heart of Orchard Road.
The two performances – for each team consisting five men – took place at the bustling Toa Payoh HDB Hub and 313@Somerset.
Salesman Leon Liang, 21, said: ‘I nearly died of embarrassment. We took turns to walk up to a spot and had to nonchalantly complete the dance.’
It did not help that the production crew – with their cameras – were hidden away from the crowd.
Said Leon: ‘People were like staring at us, thinking we had lost our minds.’
The NewPaper